WOODROW WILSON

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 112, 7 November 1912, Page 7

WOODROW WILSON

CHARACTER SKETCH. The most salient characteristic of WoOdrow Wilson is a love of fun, recently wrote Henry Jones Ford, Professor of Politics in Princeton University. This is what most impressed me when I first got to know him over a dozen years ago, and that early impression has been often renewed since. When our acquaintance began I was an editor and had a notion that college dons were persons of starched behaviour, so I was surprised, although pleased, by the eagerness with which he seized upon the humorous aspect of any situation. It was at the meeting of a learned society that brought together a number of university men and I had prepared myself for something of a didactic ordeal. But as soon as the regular exercises were over, Wilson started out to tell stones, relate anecdotes, and carry on a discursive conversation that for candour, logic, and incisiveness made me think of Johnson's table talk, when the great Cham was in a genial mood and talked English instead of Latin. I noticed that although his talk was manifestly an improvisation, his thoughts came with their clothes on. There Was a balance to his periods revealing an instinctive sense of form, and his diction was terse and idiomatic. This sponj taneity of utterance is habitual. His dignity is allowed' to take care of itself, which it is abundantly able to do, as it is always . present, although he does not seem to be aware of it. ... Whatever his experience may be he instinctively sees the funny side of things, and he returns from every excursion with a fund of amusement for the home circle just as a bee brings honey to the hive. It is a very merry home circle. There seem to bo no secrets there. The Governor speaks frankly and unreservedly upon any matter that may come up. His table talk takes a wide range, lie is omnivorous in his reading and expansive in his mental curiosity. ' Intellectual narrowness is his great aversion. . . . Woodrow Wilson is not a storyteller in the usual sense of the term. He does not save up and give out funny stones just becait&e they are funny, but his stories come up in his talk by way ol illustration, and. .they, p«fi«a logical^

pertinence. He has a gift for dramatic narrative and can describe a scene in a way that brings it vividly before one. His propensity for humorous observation preserved him from tedium in the many formal proceedings in which he was called to take part because of his official position. LITERARY DISCIPLINE. He has extraordinary capacity for getting through work without strain or Fret. This competency, while founded upon natural ability, is largely the product of intellectual discipline. When he adopted the career of a college professor, he deliberately set himself to work to train and improve his literary powers. He had already performed a rare literary exploit. His work on "Congressional Government," which has already become a political classic, was written as a doctor's thesis — a class of composition which, however meritorious in other respects, rarely possesses literary distinction. Professor Bryce's "Holy Roman Empire" and Professor Wilson's "Congressional Government" are the only academic dissertations which in our time have achieved a place in general literature. As a college professor, Woodrow Wilson set himself assiduously to literary composition, working at it as a regular task, whether he felt like it or not. The result was the appearance of a series of essays and treatises of permanent value. QUALITIES AS A PUBLIC SPEAKER. His ability as a public speaker, now so marked, has also been greatly developed since the beginning of his career. At first he prepared himself carefully as regards his diction, and the framework of his speeches was rather formal. He had some natural diffidence to overcome, and, curiously enough, notwithstanding the extraordinary facility which he now possesses, a trace of it still remains. By. practice his ability has been so developed that he now transcends that of an ordinary speaker as much as the agility of an athlete exceeds that of an ordinary man. But to this day he still feels a neivous tension in beginning that produces a feeling of "goneness" in the pit of the stomach. It disappears the moment he hears the sound of his voice. Then he loses all sense of personal consciousness in the exercise of his powers, co that the speech^ goes on almost as in a state of automatism. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. In biographical matter now appearing about the Governor, much, is said of his athletic pursuits while an undergraduato, but it is safe to say that while they interested him they never absorbed him. He is fond, of out-of-door exercise of any kind, finding in that a healthful change from the occupations of his study. Some years ago ! lie was very fond of bicycling, but of lato years golf is his favourite game, ju&t because of its distinctly out-oi-door character. He puts in a good deal of time playing golf during his summer vacation, which he used to spend at Lyme, Connecticut. When at Princeton and he can find the time, he likes to play a round on the golf links there. In his personal habits he is abstemious. Ho neither smokes nor drinks, and he does not serve wine on his table, although he provides cigars for guests who do smoke. Although spare in figure, ho has a wiry strength, conserved by his lifelong habits of temperance in all things and replenished by a fine faculty for taking his rest. He is a good sleeper, and nothing that can happen seems able to agitato his mind or cause wakefulness. This makes him a good traveller. Ho can turn in and get his night's rest as usual as he flies across the country in a sleeping car .... H« is open to advice and likes to talk things over, but his conclusions are his own, and once formed they are firmly held. _ It is useless ever to approach him with any argument based upon his personal advantage or convenience. It must go to the merits of the case to receive his consideration. Tenacity of purpose is a very strong trait ot his character. When he has determined upon any policy, ho adheres to it with constancy and perseierance, no matter what obstacles may be encountered. His spirits are remarkably equable, neither elated by success nor discouraged by failure. Ho is very easy and democratic in his manners, meeting all sorts and conditions of men without reserve or precaution. Woodrow. Wilson possesses in a singularly high degree the great administrative faculty of prompt apprehension of the true nature of a case, so as to disengage it from the irrelevant and adventitious and to guide discussion to sound conclusions. During the legislative session, if he could get into conference with the parties to a controversy, it was remarkable how rapidly he could analyse the situation, present its elements, and suggest the solution. Under the Parliamentary system he would undoubtedly have been a great leader, equalling Gladstone or Lloyd George in capacity for expounding and advocating great public policies. So far as our political system admits of such exertion of personal influence he has been uniformly successful, and that explains the signal achievements of his administration. His dispatch of business I is such that business never drives him. He seems always to have time to talk and to act with deliberation, whatever i be tho exigency, and when he is through he is through. The art of living on twenty-four hours a day was learned by him many years ago, and it stands him in good stead now. No man in public like keeps a cleaner desk or has clearer [ spaces of time for study and recreation in the intervals of official duty. HIS ATTITUDE TOWARDS RELIGION. The habitual cheerfulness and equanimity of his mind and his love of innocent fun are traits so persistent as to imply permanent moral foundations. It does not require much intimacy to discover of what these consist — namely, a deep religious faith, penetrating the whole nature of the man and informing all his acts. This is the source of that peace of mind which seems to make him immune to worry or trouble. He takes things as they come, makes the best of them, and abides by the event with simple and complete resignation to the will of God. The idealism that has now entered into philosophy from fuller knowledge of the implications of the doctrine of evolution was long ago perceived and appropriated by Woodrow Wilson. Although a member of the Presbyterian Church by birthright, and regular in his attendance, he does not talk on such subjects along denominational lines j but he is quick to assert his Christianity and to claim for its dogmas a perfectly secure basis in logic and philosophy. One of the reasons why ho enjoys Chesterton's essays is the cleverness with which that writer exposes the narrowness and obtuseness of scepticism. No man since the days of Jefferson and Madison has been presented as a candidate for the Presidential office who has had such a profound knowledge of Our political origins and constitutional history as Woodrow Wilson. Instead of holding that the Constitution needs to be changed to fit the times, Woodrow Wilson holds that the need of the times is to {jet back to the Constitution. The Constitution is choked by political growths from external influences, and its efficacy will appear when those are cleared away.